Nor'Easter. part 2 (the sequel)

[krissel]

My neighborhood just got power back here. Been out since Friday when the storm blew through with near hurricane winds. It's been five years since Hurricane Sandy dropped by and left it's mark by toppling thousands of trees. This storm was a mini version of that.

We lost a good sized pine near the road that lay at a 45º angle on the wires until the top half was chopped off this afternoon by the power company (or some tree service). They threw the debris all over and onto the property across the street. They lost a huge double-trunked hardwood tree that I actually watched split and go down. Pretty frightening to see it happen but luckily it missed his house. Lot's to clean up in the days/weeks ahead.

Fortunately our generator kicked in and worked like a champ but the propane was getting low and I cut back on the heat, etc. to conserve. We also lost landline phone (and DSL internet) until this evening. I checked the power company site and our town (Tewksbury) was 91% without power and the town next to us was 78% out. They had predicted we would get power by Tues or Wed but we lucked out in our little crossroads. One of my neighbors across the field still has his generator running. Not sure if he got power back.

I'm hoping Jane is OK on the Cape cause they got some really high winds up there, worse than us.

Will be going to the other house tmrw to see how that fared.  

[Highmac]

Hi Kris - glad you're OK and hope everyone else is too

We're just seeing last week's snow thawing  fast - temps of -6C/21F last week, up to 8C/46F today.

We were lucky and didn't get the worst of it in our area. Didn't snow until Friday and started thawing Sunday. Many rural villages had been cut off since the beginning of the week.

[Xairbusdriver]

Thanks for the update, good to hear you're OK and stayed away from falling trees! Hope everyone gets power back ASAP and the propane company can get to those in need. Let us know if you hear from Jane before she posts. Heard anything from Chris? Perhaps the 'hills' around him blocked some of the winds, but hills/mountains can also cause problems by concentrating water in the valleys.

Unfortunately, it looks like another band of wet weather is on the way east. You'll probably get some of the Gulf moisture from south of us before the end of the week. We're doing our best to wring the rain out of the clouds but there's just too much! Perhaps we could build a reeely tall wall along the coast...

[Highmac]

Update - Many small villages in the north of England have been cut off for so long that the RAF are flying supplies in by Chinook helicopter. They are treating it as a training exercise for operating in Arctic conditions... Not sure whether that was a tongue-in-cheek remark from the official  

[Xairbusdriver]

Not a pretty picture:

[attachment=3534:92fndfd.gif]
That's a 'healthy' Low! Probably not as bad as the last one.
It did get down to 990 around here in the last year.

[gunug]

My son and his wife are in northern Maryland and have been spared most of the worst of it!

[krissel]

We have about 10" where I am now (my Dad's house) and fortunately did not lose power again. But half of this town is still out of power from the first storm a week ago.

That said, my house, in a town about 20 miles from here, is without power. Half of that town is out also.  They got at least two feet of snow (according to the TV guys) and I'm worried about the almost flat section of roof that I usually shovel when I only get a foot. I have no idea when I will be able to get back there to check things out. Fingers crossed.

On Monday my sister and I tried to get to the house she has a contract to buy (about 8 miles away) but detoured all over the place before arriving to find no apparent damage to the house. Whew. Don't know yet what this second storm has done. This area was hit pretty hard by winds and many trees, poles, even gas station rain shelters were knocked over. That was a shock to see.

I am grateful that I have power right now, but worried about my house.  

[Highmac]

From here, the best we can offer is a virtual hug from Caroline and myself, while keeping our fingers crossed that all will be well.

We're now being warned of more snow this weekend - mainly in the north and Scotland - as the country continues its recovery from the 'Beast from the East' as it was dubbed by the tabloids.

[kimmer]

My heart goes out to all of you on the east coast. It's a double whammy. Hopefully you won't have suddenly warm weather and flooding.

After a few days of lovely spring type weather, where I planted some flowers and put them out,   my area is now enjoying WIND and rain. Not sure how much rain, but the wind is steady at 30mph and the gusts range from 48 to 60 mph. Those flowers are now beaten down to a muddy pulp. I'm not putting the trash can out today.  

Oh, and the power blinked off for a quick second and caused my Echo to reboot. Normal it reboots and Alexa says "Hello". This morning she woke my up laughing and then said "Good Morning". Honestly, that was freaky!

[Xairbusdriver]

Alexa is having 'happiness' spasms. Google claims 'she' is just misinterpreting sounds 'she' hears. I'm sure the software will be updated soon... computers never make mistakes.

You do understand that 'she' is constantly listening and reporting everything heard back to Google, right?! Who needs wire taps?

My ignorance is showing... again! Alexa is probably one of the view IoT items that Google does not monitor since it is owned/delivered by Amazon. Googles entry into the 'smart speaker' is called "Home". I think it responds to "Google" rather than "Hey!"

[kimmer]

Wind and rain are done, and so are my new plants. Totally beat into the mud. Gosh, that must mean I get to enjoy another trip to the nursery; and I'll combine it with my hunt for a couple of houseplants.  

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Mar 8 2018, 10:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Alexa is having 'happiness' spasms. Google claims 'she' is just misinterpreting sounds 'she' hears. I'm sure the software will be updated soon... computers never make mistakes.

You do understand that 'she' is constantly listening and reporting everything heard back to Google, right?! Who needs wire taps?

Yup I know Alexa is always listening, and sometimes she speaks up when she's not been spoken to by me--those Amazon Alexa commercials are the worst.

I've read about how Alexa is laughing at odd times, but this was first time I've heard it in my home. It was a creepy way to wake up.  

[krissel]

Internet has been out til now...

Made it down to my house this aft to dig out the drive (23" of snow had compressed to about 16" of cement) and a path to the oil fill pipes. I was supposed to get a delivery Thursday but of course no one was going anywhere around here then. Trees and wires still block a lot of the roads and my town is widely without power, but by a quirk my street actually now has power. Whoo, hoo. The next street over and beyond are in the dark. One odd note, I entered the house to hear one of my TV's talking away. Seems the power blips or surge caused it to start up on its own. I have a touch lamp that does that but never had a TV do it.

I'm almost out of oil and have turned the thermostat to its lowest setting without turning off the furnace. Am running electric heaters while here but will have to turn them off when I return to Dad's house tmrw so may run out of oil before I get a delivery.   . Still, I do have heat for now which most do not.

My neighbor blew the snow from the very end of my drive so I only had to dig out about 30' for my car and the truck, should it come. Another 85' to the house and pipes and I thought that would be it. But found several large branches from one of my huge pines frozen in a mound of ice in front of the pipes,  so had to chip them out and saw them up. Also some hanging on the wires which were difficult to dislodge. Oddly, those big pine trees kept a lot of the snow from landing on the flat roof section, so that was fine.

Went around to the other side of the house and found a large branch had snapped off a tree and fell toward the house but was deflected by my TV antenna which is now bent in an A shape.     I think it saved the roof from damage by it's sacrifice.

Lastly, I went out back to find a 50' white pine that I had planted as a sapling 40 years ago laying across the lawn.  A huge oak also fell but mostly in the woods so not a concern.  Guess I lucked out that there was no apparent damage to the house or outbuildings. Could have been a lot worse.

Am looking forward to Spring.  

[Xairbusdriver]

100 years from now, you'll look back at these events and laugh!

Seriously, thanks for reminding me that our little problems in my wife's inherited farm house is so minor. Also hope the oil delivery happens today!

[kimmer]

QUOTE(krissel @ Mar 10 2018, 12:02 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Internet has been out til now...

[trimmed all the news out for space]

Am looking forward to Spring.  

Krissel, I can't even begin to imagine what you are dealing with. Hope the oil arrives soon, and that spring -- and no floods -- is right behind.

[Xairbusdriver]

If the Jet stream and the lower-level winds hold up for a few days, the next bad-boy low pressure system (currently in northern KS) may stay far enough south of NJ to avoid yet another Noreaster! We can hope that gunug can fill up that one and change it to a high pressure system! Unfortunately, there is another system crossing the west coast. It's up to kimmer to stop that one...